Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom
"Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom" is a video installation by Paul Pfeiffer that employs multiple media formats including VHS tapes, CD-ROM, and LCD monitors to create a continuous four-second looping presentation. The work exemplifies Pfeiffer's practice of appropriating and recontextualizing found footage and digital imagery to interrogate narratives of power, history, and representation. By fragmenting and repeating brief visual sequences across different technological platforms, the installation invites viewers to reconsider how meaning is constructed through media circulation and institutional framing.
- Medium
- video installation (4 second continuous loop), 2 VHS tapes, 1 CD-ROM and 2 LCD monitors
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art
December 4, 2024
Lot 91
Artists in conversation
Douglas Gordon
Scottish · b. 1966
Gordon similarly manipulates found footage and existing film material through looping and temporal distortion, as seen in works like 24 Hour Psycho, creating meditations on power and cultural memory that parallel Pfeiffer's interrogation of mass media imagery.
Christian Marclay
American/Swiss · b. 1955
Marclay appropriates and recombines existing media across multiple technological formats to create new cultural commentary, sharing Pfeiffer's interest in fragmenting and recontextualizing found audiovisual material to expose underlying narratives of representation.
Nam June Paik
Korean/American · b. 1932
Paik pioneered video installations using multiple monitors and mixed technological media to interrogate mass culture and representation, directly anticipating Pfeiffer's use of layered VHS and LCD platforms to create looping, politically charged visual experiences.
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